The Theology of Aliens
Being an avid consumer of science fiction, I’ve given some thought to whether life on ohter planets is possible in Yahweh’s universe. The more I read about the amazing precision it took to get just one livable planet, the less likely it seems that there are others. On the other hand, what would limit the creator of the universe from doing that? I’m certainly not the first to tackle these questions, but I find them interesting. Certainly Jesus would not have had to die more than once, and He is called the only begotten of the father. So, if there are others and they also sinned, how would they get the message? We have enough trouble believing in Him when He lived and died among us. How many of us would buy the story if Jesus were an alien?
But is that really so much harder to believe? Yes, actually. If I had known at the time I first wrote this how much historical evidence we have of Jesus I would not have asked the question.
What if they did not fall? Then there is no need for redemption. We were not intended to live in our current corrupted state. Would God permit fallen man to interact with such a civilization? Before I knew of C.S. Lewis’s work, I began to imagine the stories that could be written from these questions. If I thought I had the skill to generate anything better than a nursery book when it comes to fiction I might try my hand at it.